Erik Schlopy argues that early tip pressure is overrated. Excessive flex at the tip creates friction that slows you down. Instead, apply a sharp bite for a fraction of a second, let the ski's sidecut do the work, then shift weight back as it bends like a bow.
Chapters
So many people, like, seem to emphasize, like, you've got to get the tip biting and, you know, working. Like, if you bend the tip, like, early, like, that's great. But when I make a good turn, that— when that happens, I feel like I can't progressively get into the turn. I don't want that to happen at that moment, right? Like, think about how flexible the tip is. Like, if you flex just the tip, it's, it's like, wow, wow, wow, and, and then stick under your foot. And so if you go too hard into the tip, that's gonna create a lot of friction. The less friction you have, the faster you go. So if you're, it's like hitting the brakes in a car when you push too hard. People, a lot of people overpower their skis and think that's good. It's actually, you want the least amount of power to make the radius you want. Now, a lot of times, it takes a lot of power to make the radius we need, especially, you know, in racing. So you really got to be really be resisting a lot of forces. Like, I want to be up and over it. I want my sternum to come up over, over my pelvis and out. And I want to be like laying into the tip, but only for a fraction of a second. It literally just bites. And then, and then it's like you almost move back just like just a tiny bit as the skis go out. You barely need any force to get your ski tip to bend. Once your ski is bent and it's tipped up, it will pull radius. You're not relying on the tip anymore. Your ski is bent like a bow and it has sidecut. Yeah. Um, you know, this far behind the tip all the way to the tail, there's sidecut. So if you have pressure on the ski, and with the sidecut, you only need the shovel of your ski for maybe for, you know, 30 centimeters. Yeah. Going 60. So it happens fast.
